Important steps: Girls await theirfirst Communion in Roseau's Roman Catholic
cathedral. Four out offive Dominicans are Catholic, their devotion reflected by a
freshly painted church in St. Joseph. Fishermen are feted in Soufriere at the Feast
of St. Peter and St. Paul, held in different villages duringJune andJuly.
nobody is getting rich, but if you work hard
you can just make a living."
As we trudged up and down his six steep
acres, I learned how much work it took to pro
duce the fruit that millions of people take for
granted when they slice a ripe banana onto
their morning cereal. For his efforts John gets
about ten cents a pound. In a year, after
expenses, he might clear a thousand dollars.
Not a whole lot when you have six children.
"It's easy to make children," he said, "but
it's not so easy to feed them, you know?" His
oldest, Otis, is 18, and John doesn'texpecthim
to follow in his footsteps. "I don't blame any
one for not wanting to be a farmer in Domini
ca," he said. "It's hard working for nothing."
For John it became harder still last year
when Hurricane Hugo flattened his crop,
though his house and family were unharmed.
"I am replanting the bananas," he told me
with a trace of resignation. "There is nothing
else to do in Dominica."
B UT THAT IS NOT ENTIRELY TRUE. In a
high remote valley at the opposite
end of the island, a promising alter
native has taken hold. Since 1984
Windward Islands Aloe, a small Florida
based company, has been successfully grow
ing the spiked plant, a member of the lily
family whose leaves yield the gel used in skin
creams and myriad other products.
Farm manager Marshall (Barney) Barnard
and his wife, Loye, are two of only half a dozen
Americans on the island. They live in a two
story house nearly obscured by flowering trees
and vines. A magnificently plumed peacock
patrols the lawn, vying with hibiscus, alla
manda, red ginger lilies, and frangipani.
"How did we come to be here?" Barney,
athletic in middle age, his close-cropped hair
flecked with gray, considered the question as
he showed me around. "Sheer craziness, I
guess. That mountain behind you is Morne
Fous -Mountain of Fools. When we saw that,
we knew we were home.
"We have 80 acres under cultivation, and
Dominica
113